ABSTRACT
Much has now been written and theorized about rape in the context of war (Copelon 1995; Buss 2002; Askin 2003; Engle 2005; MacKinnon 2006). The violent conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s, in which women were routinely raped, sexually assaulted, incarcerated and forcibly impregnated as part of deliberate military and political strategies to debase and humiliate them and others (read: men) from the same ethnic group, turned the tide on impunity for international war crimes against women. These forms of sexual violence have been responded to by international condemnation and outrage, albeit belatedly (for example, Akayesu ICTR-96-4, ITCR, 1998; Kunarac, Kovac and Vukovic IT-96-23 and 23/1, ICTY, 2002; Furundzija IT-95-17/1, ICTY, 2000; SC res. 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008); Statute of the International Criminal Court 1998, Articles 7(1)(g), (c) and (h), and 8(1)(b)(xxii)).
